Our beautiful and brave Shahd is doing very well. She has blossomed, is full of energy and she loves her various activities. She has started grade 2, attending school two days a week. She also has regular hand therapy. Most importantly, she is learning to look after her own skin and manage her own daily bathing routine.

Shahd continues to be in the care of her wonderful surgeon and our focus is now on her hands to give her the most independence possible.

I’m so happy to see that Emmanuel is back in the USA and doing so well with his music career. I miss him very much, but I’m incredibly proud of his achievements.

Congratulations also to Ahmed. He has been accepted for high performance training at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and that’s where he’s now living. I miss him very much, but I’m also so very proud.

With Emmanuel and Ahmed both gone, Fava is now the man of the house. Leila’s husband has been a great support to us all.

Severine’s twins, Moira and Molly are both doing well. Severine had nowhere to go when she came to live with us. Her future looked very bleak and since then, the transformation in her life has been enormous.

Another child will be joining us in the next few months. Stay tuned for news….!

We have volunteers coming to the house every day. They are the backbone of our work and I can’t thank each and every one enough for their contributions.

I want to finish by saying that the thing that makes this house so rich is the way everyone looks after each other – the children, sick as they are and the displaced women who have become like carers to them, even though their own journey has been so hard. I watch the mums and kids together and it’s wonderful to see everybody helping each other. This is the journey of compassion that we’re all sharing.